DelMarVa's Premier Source for News, Opinion, Analysis, and Human Interest Contact Publisher Joe Albero at alberobutzo@wmconnect.com or 410-430-5349
Sunday, January 31, 2016
A Viewer Writes: Credit Card
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DelMarVa's Premier Source for News, Opinion, Analysis, and Human Interest Contact Publisher Joe Albero at alberobutzo@wmconnect.com or 410-430-5349
25 comments:
They are toast anyway as Royal Farms are building right across the highway!
press cancel on the keypad to avoid this from happening.
The person behind you probably had their gas paid by you
it probably didn't cancel the transaction, so the next person to use the pump simply got 30 bucks worth of gas for free. Always make sure it says "transaction cancelled".
To all of you saying hit cancel, NOT GOOD ENOUGH! When you put the handle back in the holster, transaction complete. Technology is far too advanced for this BS excuse.
This is not unusual. When your card is swiped at a gas station, a restaurant or a hotel, a pre-determined amount is "authorized" even though it isn't actually charged yet. It's just a "hold" for that amount to ensure you have enough credit on the account to cover the final amount charged.
It happens all the time to everybody, and is nothing to get upset about. The temporary "hold" is typically released within about 24 hours or so.
Give it a couple days, and call your credit card company to verify it has been released, and ask them to explain what a "hold" is for. Quit harassing the manager at the gas station, it isn't their problem, and it isn't even your problem.
Are you sure it's charged, or authorization hold only.
Any an adult should know, when you swipe the card, they authorize a certain dollar amount, some places $1, $30 or even $80, then at the end of the night they upload a batch report to the processor, who later releases the hold and charges only the amount you use.
This can sometimes take 2 to 5 days to clear depending on the processor, day of week etc.
I'd ask your bank before jumping to conclusions.
Could it be just a hold on the card?
Royal farms did same to me in Hebron. Ignorant manager could get off her fat butt to do anything. Was texting and told me her old man was leaving her and I'd have to come back tomorrow because she didn't care. Worthless cuss. Corporate got me right and sent me a gift card.
May not be a charge at all, just a pending transaction hold. Whenever you buy gas your charge card gets a hold put on until the transactions from that retailer are processed and cleared with the exact amount. In this case an exact amount of $0 will probably clear the hold in one or two days.
Thank you Joe! All the know it all's holding their noses up! Bout time!
Once again, while some of what you say is true, some
businesses like gas stations do put a minimum against your credit card, NO GAS WAS USED/PURCHASED. Again, technology is far too advanced to subject people to this. What if this person only had $30.00 left on their credit card balance. Now they can't purchase anything else until their credit is cleared. And don't come back here saying too bad. MANY people are on their last few dollars, MANY!
With all due respect Joe, this is why no one should ever use a debit card tied to their checking account. Anything could happen and your mortgage payment bounce, etc.
Everyone should have a charge card (such as American Express) that you charge every daily purchase on, and pay it off at the end of the month. Totally protects you against any of this nonsense. Plus you get free miles to go on vacation with for every purchase.
If you don't use a charge card, or want a backup for some odd place that doesn't take Amex (very few these days, as Visa Signature and MasterCard Rewards cost way more to accept than Amex to the merchant) - then a Visa or Mastercard credit card, but again, pay it every 20 days or so, so there is no chance of them charging you interest.
This happens all the time at hotels, gas stations and car rental places. Car Rental places will put a $200 hold on your card to cover damages, then you get to your destination and have no money available on your card that you thought still has $140 on it or such.
This is not the gas station owners fault - even if purchase wasn't made, the authorization is done BEFORE you pump gas, so that people don't fill up their RV with $80 of gas and then their card not go through.
There iS NOTHING this station owner can do to speed up the process. Bank purposely slow this process down so the can make interest on the daily "sweeps" so they will hold money for at least a day, or sometimes it's been known to be 5 or 6 days. A lot of times it's not even the credit card processor (like Elavon or Heartland) it's YOUR LOCAL BANK - that's right.
You are screaming at the wrong person, and we as business owners get sick of it - you're the dummy using at debit card - yell at YOUR LOCAL BANK, they are the ones holding YOUR MONEY. We can't do anything about it.
In this case perhaps the owner gave the customer $30 just to shut him up, but that's $30 he lost - and why I don't buy this entire story- no business owner is just going to give you $30 - we have customers try to scam us every single day. People are the worst - anyone in retail will tell you- they never realize how bad people are until you have to deal with them. Even that nice old lady can be a real Tuesday and will Lie to you to scam you out of a few dollars.
Same difference if you go to a gas station and pay cash for a fill up. You go inside, give the cashier a fifty, and pump your gas. When you're done you go back in and the difference is refunded to you. The amount is a reasonable estimate of how much you're going to need.
Doesn't matter if you get out there and discover you already had plenty of gas, you've already let the gas station "hold" the amount you pre-authorized. You decide not to try to pump any more in the tank, and walk back in for your fifty. No harm, no foul.
They had no way of knowing if you were going to end up spending zero, or $5.00, or $46.08.
In a retail store, you stop at the cashier with your purchases, and they run your credit card right there. The important difference is, you have not actually "received" the merchandise yet. It's sitting on th counter, not yet removed from the store and not quite in your possession, not yet. A gas station can't take the chance. You're asking to take physical possession of the merchandise, which is the gasoline, without paying for it first. If you pumped thirty dollars in gas, the station has no way to retain their merchandise if you can't pay for it.
A thirty dollar pre-authorization for a tank of gas is pretty low. What's really annoying is when it cuts off the pump right at that thirty or fifty dollar amount, forcing you to run the card a second time to fill that 31 gallon gas tank.
If the hold is such a big deal, call the card company and they'll usually release it immediately, if one really is in need of that last $30 in credit.
I'm so glad this was posted. I'll tell you what happened to me about 2 months ago. I went to the new Goose Creek across from La Tolteca in Salisbury. I didn't use a credit card at the pump, but I went into the store and bought $20 worth of gas using cash. I pumped Unleaded and was able to print the receipt at the pump. When I got in my car my tank was only like half full so I looked at the receipt and noticed that I only got about 7 gallons. I took the receipt back in the store and told them that at the price then was like 1.79 I should have gotten around 11 gallons. THey had to call the manager at her home to figure out what to do and she told them that it has happened before and how to fix it so I could get my other gallons. Even thought I pumped Unleaded I was charged the Supreme gas price. Honestly, probably the first time I've ever looked at gallons vs price. I've probably been ripped off plenty before then, but it was because I paid cash I guess that I paid attention. Usually I do just use my credit card.
The owner said he WILL NOT give me my $30.00 back.
Just call your credit card company. This happens all the time.
6:24. Everyone needs to read your post. Thank you.
To those who want to take this one step further so that others are not caught in this mess....
call Maryland Department of Agriculture/Weights and Measures in Annapolis to report the gas pump problem.
Any phony business will be inspected and verified and action WILL be taken to get the matter straightened. This is a routine inspection but is also done to clear up these types of situations. This actually happens more than you know.
Call the Department of Agriculture if you think there is funny business going on with gas pumps. They are charged with weights and measures and if a complaint is filed they will check the pump to make sure the pump is working properly. As far as the funny business behind the cash register......just don't go back and let people know. Thanks for the tip!!!
Owner is making it right. What do you want readers to know? That you left there with an unexplained charge on your card? You should have picked this up right away.
Your credit card company took your money, not the owner. Call them. The "hold"' should have been off by now, making this a moot point.
Now, a completely unrelated and somewhat more valid complaint has been brought up. If you think you were charged the wrong price, or received less gas than the pump indicated, you have a legitimate complaint. Call the Weights and Measures department, they will investigate.
BTW, they wil investigate if you buy a "cord" of wood that turns out to be fraudulently short once it's properly stacked, too.
Also be on the lookout for COUNTING GAS PUMPS, YES I SAID AND MEAN COUNTING GAS PUMPS...
You can lift the handle and/or hit the button, then the amount of dollars that click when you pump starts to move a click every 1 or 2 seconds even when you are not pumping any gas... Makes you get less gas than what you paid for...
I have seen videos of pumps that do this, so keep an eye out for them, these pumps could be in Salisbury too...
So...to the OP(W)....
Did you ever call your credit card company, to confirm the "hold" was removed?
And how long was the "hold" on the account for that $30?
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